CHESHIRE, Mass. — Berkshire Village has been fined by the state for wastewater violations while residents say problems persist despite the owners' assurances that they are doing everything they can to improve conditions at the mobile home park.

 

At this point, William Moreau, president of the Berkshire Village Tenants Association, said they remain uncertain how to get the improvements they have been urging for. 

 

"The stress level here is extremely high. People are stressed out. We want some resolutions. We want to go into the winter months, knowing that at least this company is going to give us a place to live that's safe," Moreau said. 

 

"Home should be the place where we can go, where we are stress free, where we have quiet time to ourselves, and right now it's not." 

 

On Sept. 2, the state Department of Environmental Protections issued an enforcement order to the owners, Crown Communities, which, according to the town's property card, they purchased in December 2022 for $1. 

 

The DEP identified several problems including the park's failing subsurface sewage disposal systems, its repairs and upgrades of which remain unfinished, missed inspection requirements, including documents for Title 5 septic inspections, failing to complete the requirements to transfer the Groundwater Discharge Permit, outstanding compliance obligations, and more. 

 

They fined Crown Communities for $6,742.60, of which they are required to pay $3,000 within 30 days of the order. The remaining $3,742.60 will be suspended if the company complies with the order. 

 

Failure to comply could trigger additional daily penalties starting at $100 per day and increasing for continued violations.

 

In an interview with iBerkshires.com, Moreau said the association has not received a timeline for completing the work and the DEP has granted Crown Communities with a 45-day extension on the order's 30 day timeline. 

 

Crown Communities Property Manager Alexander Cabot said he is not aware of what the DEP's enforcement order says, only that there has been ongoing dialog between the company and DEP as they monitor the progress being made towards fixing the septic system. 

 

The company is spending millions of dollars on improvements, particularly on the park's wastewater and drinking water treatment systems, which fell into disrepair under the prior ownership because of deferred maintenance, he said. 

 

"We've been opening our checkbooks almost every week to write checks to fix things. We have not been stingy at all when it comes to spending dollars," Cabot said. 

 

The project is ongoing with both Cabot and the other manager being on site all week working with the local contractor and engineers, in addition to its engineering consultants, he said. 

 

Cabot said they are doing everything they can to ensure that that project is wrapped before the end of the year, with the hope it is complete by winter. 

 

"If you have any experience with contracting projects, that is contingent on a lot of things going right: weather, availability of labor, availability of subcontractors. We are moving heaven and earth to make that happen. But like anything in construction, we cannot guarantee that outcome," he said. 

 

It's been nearly a year since Berkshire Village residents went before the Rent Control Board to demand action on deteriorating conditions at the mobile home park, during which tenants emphasized issues, including problems with septic systems, electrical service, water, and roads.

 

According to the DEP's enforcement order, in December 2025, Justin Damore, the general contractor, informed the state that their goal was to have all the work and required reviews for the Subsurface Sewage Disposal System inspection "before the first snowfall."

 

"This is New England, so we're being respectful to the fact that … there's a limit as to what they can do when winter months hit but we want to at least make it through the winter with safe roads and a usable safe septic. We want to make sure that we have water that we can drink that is not an issue health wise," Moreau said, emphasizing how the winter season is looming. 

 

Although Moreau acknowledges that work has been done, he believes some of the "improvements" have exacerbated the existing problems. 

 

Everything that residents have heard from Crown Communities has centered on the money being spent towards improvements and investments being made, Moreau said. 

 

"It seems to us that this company's only real concern is money," he said. 

 

"From that perspective, the fines that the DEP is suggesting may actually cause this company to sit up and take notice because that is something they take notice to — dollars. As far as any concern with regard to this company's concern over the welfare of this community, they have shown us again and again and again that they don't seem to have any concern." 

 

Residents say they have endured the park's unsafe and deteriorating conditions for nearly a decade because of neglect by the previous owners. 

 

Crown Communities has been working on improvements to the park's condition for five years and has faced "every conceivable kind of challenge," from the pandemic, an acute shortage of labor, major supply chain disruptions, ongoing regulatory issues, and more, Cabot said. 

 

"It did not help that former ownership allowed these problems to fester. So, not only were we stepping into a very difficult situation, we had 20 years of deferred maintenance on a community," he said. 

 

"They did not keep records, they did not keep compliance documents. So, a lot of our discovery on what needed to be done, needed to be done from scratch. We were not given a sort of a turnkey handoff by the former owners."

 

Moreau acknowledged that crews installed peat modules, pumps and piping over the summer, but claims that work remains incomplete, with some residents reporting odors inside their homes, which he suspected is caused by improper venting. 

 

Cabot said that the company has investigated claims of odor and that to their knowledge, it is not a direct result of any defects of the septic system. Rather, the residents making these reports have older homes that do not have traps. 

 

"Because we do not own those homes, we don't have the jurisdiction or the authority to basically put traps into the home," he said. 

 

The park's water supply has been a particular concern for residents reporting sand or sediment in their water since work was done on the well, in which new pumps and filtration systems were installed, Moreau said. 

 

"Water quality tests are being conducted…we do that every week. That's necessary in order to stay in compliance with the state. We have heard anecdotally about the sand and the sediment. We have yet to see it ourselves, and we are continuing to investigate that," Cabot said. 

 

Moreau said he is not sure what is causing the sediment from entering that water but suspects the increased water pressure may be dislodging sediment from distribution pipes, which he said may not have been flushed regularly. 

 

He said the association has shared photographs and other information with DEP but believes the agency has been told the issue was resolved by the water operator. 

 

So, the association is exploring the possibility of hiring an independent water expert from another company to assess the ongoing issues and provide guidance on potential next steps. However, the cost of hiring a specialist presents a challenge for the volunteer-run organization, Moreau said. 

 

"Money is going to be an issue but we have been putting out feelers trying to find somebody that can at least give us some advice as to where things are going," he said. 

 

Moreau has previously said the park's electrical infrastructure no longer meets electrical code and is prohibited by power companies. During the recent interview with iBerkshires, he claimed nothing has been done to address this. 

 

"All electrical infrastructure improvements have been done, with the exception of one pole that needs to be replaced. We just made a payment to National Grid yesterday of over $1,000. They are due to come out and replace that," Cabot said, stressing that the timeline of completion is up to National Grid. 

 

Moreau said when residents raised concerns to the owners, Crown Communities, they were told to take them up with its management company, M. Shapiro Real Estate. 

 

However, Moreau claims that residents are now being "harrassed" including unauthorized entries onto their lots, threatening behavior by staff, and attempts to enforce rules they believed did not apply. He said efforts to report the harassment have gone unanswered. 

 

Cabot said he is "very dubious" of these accusations and has not heard "anything from anyone" about claims of harassment. Additionally, he highlighted how M. Shapiro Real Estate is one of the largest property management companies for manufactured housing in the United States. 

 

"They are the gold standard for professional management, and I am very, very dubious that they would ever engage in any sort of untoward practices towards residents," he said.